“Had Fanny been born a poor man’s daughter, she would have been known throughout the world…” (Critic for the English Athenaeum, 1854)

Fanny Mendelssohn (Bartholdy) Hensel is the elder sister of the great Romantic composer Felix Mendelssohn. She was a child prodigy and received the same musical education as her equally talented brother. However,  having been born a woman into a wealthy family in the 19th century, her father made it very clear that music was ‘an ornament’ to help her find a  suitable husband and, thus, fulfill her position in society as a wife and mother.

At age 24, she married Prussian court painter Wilhelm Hensel, who encouraged her to continue composing. He recognized that music was as essential to her as air. In their new home they set up studios next door to each other and worked happily day after day side by side. Despite her husband’s (and, later on, mother’s) encouragement, she struggled her entire life with whether or not to publish her music. She longed to please her father and her brother but neither of them approved of Fanny pursuing any sort of career in music (although Felix published several of her pieces under his name and championed other female musicians such as Clara Schumann and Josephine Lang). To this day, most of her over 500 compositions remain only in manuscript form and are hidden away in libraries and private collections.

During our lesson time we will be talking a little bit about Fanny. Our homework will be to color the Fanny coloring page while enjoying some of her music (some suggestions and a link to a short biography are given below). After listening to her music fill in the three blank lines on the coloring page with answers to the prompt: “Hensel’s music makes me think of…”

SUGGESTED VIDEOS FOR LISTENING HOMEWORK

Notturno in G minor – Fanny hosted successful Sunday salon concerts in her home. These concerts were frequented by the greatest composers and performers of the day, including Franz Liszt and Clara Schumann. Shorter pieces, such as this Notturno in G minor, would have been played at these gatherings.

Italien (Schöner und schöner schmückt) – When Felix Mendelssohn was 18 years old he published a collection of 12 chamber songs for voice and piano (Opus 8). Three of the songs (numbers 2, 3, and 12) had actually been composed by Fanny, although she received no recognition in the publication. It was much easier at the time to have her compositions published under her brother’s name. On a visit to Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, Felix found a copy of his Op. 8 songs on the piano  in the queen’s sitting room and asked the queen to sing one of the songs. She immediately chose her favorite “Italien”. Felix later wrote to his mother of her singing, “It was really charming and the last long G I have never heard better or purer or more natural from any amateur.” When they had finished he was forced to admit, although with some embarrassment, that Fanny had actually composed it.

Piano Trio in D minor, Op. 11: I. Allegro molto vivace – This is arguably Fanny’s greatest work and some believe it was a response to her brother’s Piano Trio in C minor, Op. 66 which he composed a few months earlier.

Das Jahr – Another one of Fanny’s most important works, “The Year” is a thirteen-piece piano cycle, based on the months of the year plus an epilogue. Fanny composed it as a musical diary chronicling the year she, her husband Wilhelm, and their son Sebastian spent in Italy.

Biography of Fanny mendelssohn hensel

For a biography of Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel check out Encyclopedia Britannica’s entry Fanny Mendelssohn.

Children’s Books:

• “Hidden Music: The Life of Fanny Mendelssohn” by Gloria Kamen, ISBN-13:  978-0689317149
• “Gifted Sister: The Story of Fanny Mendelssohn” by Sarah Shichtman, ISBN-10: 1599350386